Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
Beloved,
Celebrating Easter is an act of hope and bravery. In the midst of all that is happening in the world and in our lives, we dare—DARE—to rejoice in God’s goodness and mercy. We have moved from ashes to alleluia and the grittiness of one is in equal proportion to the sweetness of the other. Over and over again, we follow Jesus in his life and ministry to the cross and grave and beyond to resurrection light. It is a journey that is both familiar and always different. Easter—perhaps ever-familiar for some of us and perhaps new to those who are experiencing it for the first time—is our opportunity to rejoice with abandon as God makes a mockery of death and those who sow seeds of destruction. This is our opportunity to remember that we place our hopes in a God who knows what it is to descend to the depths of incomprehensible brokenness and to rise up from it.
As we sing our Alleluias, the ashes remain, reminding us that resurrection isn’t to defy our humanity but to raise it up. However it is with you this Easter season, I pray that you would know moments of God’s profound love for you. For however long or brief, whether whispered quietly or proclaimed loudly, may your authentic rejoicing be brave and true.
Faithfully,
Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows
